Tactical Reference: "Napoleon" Scenario
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Author: ?
Strategic Comment: George "Polaris" Lyles
Date Submitted: 3/19/00

Introduction 

          I think it is safe to say that the original Napoleon scenario featured in the Conflict in Civilization add-on disc is truly one of the, if not the, best Napoleonic Wars scenario.  It contains great art, “did you know” event pop-ups, special units, pre-set technologies, and with the classic Civ2 look to it, the scenario makes the cake for CiC.  The following is a tactical reference for you when playing this scenario.   For now, all you will be hearing about in this essay is about the French.  This tactic is for the French player only.

Starting Up

At the beginning of the scenario a pop-up appears informing you that Napoleon’s army discovered the Rosetta Stone, for also at the beginning you are in north Africa.  When you click “Ok” you will be given a choice of researching two technologies: A.) Steam Engine & B.) Explosives.  Many times have I been militaristicly foolish and chose steam engine.  This is NOT the way to go.  The technology you want for now is explosives.  You will find out later why I chose this.   Before you move your first unit, go to your foreign advisor and make an alliance with the Neutral Alliance…for the time being.  Keep it with them until this document says not to.Keep all cities building their default unit for now.  Once you capture more cities, I will inform you what to build.

From the start of this scenario all of your cities will be building cavalry, artillery, infantry, or a naval vessel, basically all there is to build.  So many times have I seen people waste Infantry by either attacking with them continuously or just fortifying them, even when the city may already have plenty of defense.  You should always keep at least one infantry unit fortified in each city, no excuses.  KEEP all Infantry, do not change the build order.  

Beginning Occupations

          Now, you will obviously go for the Ottomans first.  Take Alexandria and continue upward, but do NOT take Turkey, take everything BUT Turkey.  Leave all your navy in north Africa where it is, or what also is a good idea is moving it into Alexandria.  Use your man-of-wars to take out weak defenses of Jaffa, Damascus, and Antioch (then your units can just walk in).  Once you have taken this cities, plus Alexandria (of course), Cairo, and Aswan, move your man-of-wars into some of these cities (of your choice) to rest them.  While you are taking this land, you will be given the task to take out the Austrians and the Prussians.  While playing this scenario many times I have compiled a brilliant tactic to deal with them in a quick swoosh.

The Doffensive

          Here is where all of your Infantry come in handy.  Whenever there is a city to be sieged, no matter how big, small, powerful, or weak the city is, you should do this tactic.  Send an infantry unit to key points inside the AI’s city radius, thus cripleing their resources, production, food, and trade.  Usually you want the infantry unit directly outside the city, as in the next square.  You should have 1-3 (no more than 3) infantry units around each city you are attacking (don’t worry, they can be used more than once).  Now, fortify each when you have them positioned.  Unless the AI has artillery, that infantry unit is there until you want him to be, unless the AI suddenly becomes intelligent and masses cavalry on you, which most-likely won’t happen.  Now, move any artillery (always have 2 for every city, then 1 for each 3 citizens per city) ONTO the infantry units, thus making it so if the AI attacks the artillery, he is really attacking the defensive infantry unit.  Then, keep your cavalry two-three spaces away from the city.  Your advantage is roads.  NEVER PILLAGE THEM!  When the next turn comes, bombard the city with the artillery and use the cavalry if needed.  When you have the city’s defenses destroyed, click on the infantry unit (one of them if more than one) to unfortify him.  Use him to take the city and re-fortify him inside the city, and change production to either Cavalry or Artillery.  Usually 1/6 of production should be artillery, 2/6 cavalry and 3/6 infantry/boats.  This entire tactic is what I call the “doffensive” tactic, and note that it is best used on roads, but usually not as effective on railroads (enemies can get to you too easily).

          With this tactic, if used over and over again, will help you take ALL of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire.  It will get frustrating at first, but you will get the hang of it.  One thing with that part of this essay is that you must have an adequate number of forces.

Siezing Western Europe

Once you have captured Austria (Vienna will be a tough city to capture, you will have to do a mass number doffensive), you must now begin on the UK, Prussia, Sarajevo (Ottoman), Bucuresti (Ottoman), and Athens (Ottoman).  The United Kingdom, surprisingly, is easy to take care of.  Simply build 2-3 transports in Antwerp and/or Brest, and load these with sufficient amounts of infantry, cavalry, and artillery.  From here, you will first want to take Plymouth.  Use your man-of-wars to take care of its defenses!  Then load into it.  Then go for London, Bristol, Burmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Dublin.  Lisbon and Gibraltar will be taken care of later.  Do the doffensive tactic to all of Prussia’s cities, except Warsaw.  First use small amounts of cavalry on Warsaw, then go to the doffensive.  The Ottoman cities usually have 1-2 infantry, then a militia, with the standard small unit, and weak one at that, called the Mamluke.  A horde of your cavalry mixed with a mediocre doffensive will take care of Sarajevo, Bucuresti, and Athens.  Once this is finished, still do not attack Turkey.

Occupying Russia

From now until about 1804-1806 (depending on how long it took you to complete your tasks) you should keep it quiet.  Build up large amounts of all types of units: infantry, cavalry, and artillery and send all units you have had in other theatres (except the African/Middle East theatre and the UK) to Lemberg, a former Austrian city.  Have Lemberg, Budapest, Krakow, and Prague build at least 2 artillery pieces each. 

Now for a doffensive on the Russian city of Kiev (we want Kiev first, not Odessa).  Now, you must have at least 5-10 infantry units, 4-6 artillery pieces, and 10 cavalry units to do a successful doffensive on Kiev and have left overs.  While you put your doffensive on Kiev, move all other units you have collected/trained to the outskirts of Russia, but keep them on the roads to Russia.  The doffensive city order for taking Russia should go as follows (in the southern front):  Kiev, Kursk & Poltava (same time, divide forces, but first build more!), Odessa, Sevastopol, and now stop.

Once these cites are taken you must now do doffensives on the northern front on the following cities, in order: Riga, Vitebsk, Smolensk, St. Petersburg.  After this launch a rather large doffensive from Smolensk and Kursk onto Moscow.  You will find an advantage fortifying infantry around Moscow, for Smolensk is very close to the city.  Once done with thid doffensive, stop, once again.

Now, order Kursk, Moscow, and Poltava to build engineers, once they have at least one infantry inside them.  Like I said, you wanted explosives.  Buy the engineers (you should have enough gold).  The next turn, you must use the engineers to build roads from your new Russian cities to the Russian cities that have no roads.  This is to make doffensives work more effectively.  Always have 1-2 cavalry and possibly an infantry unit escort the engineer around.  Luckily, even in Deity level, the AI won’t attack your engineers most of the time.

When efficient roads have been constructed, use them to deploy your doffensives.  Most of these Russian cities have mere 1-2 infantry, a militia, and maybe an artillery or cavalry unit lurking around the city radius, or a bit outside the city radius.  It does not really matter what order you do these doffensives, but make them effective with mass amounts of units.

Destroying Your Ally & the Ottoman Turks

Ok, by now you should have steam engine, and it is later in the scenario once you captured Russia.  All that is left is Turkey and the Neutral Alliance.  It is time to break off your alliance.  Do this, but before you do, assure yourself of a few things:

1.) All of your units gone from their cities.
2.) Mass numbers of units in Liege, Breslau, Prague, and possibly Rome.

          Once the alliance is off, use a doffensive on Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Munich.  To capture Rome you must execute a rather huge doffensive, but do so before you go after Spain.  Now, because the Neutral Alliance was probably at war with Britain, they should have Lisbon, and of course Spain.  Load cavalry, infantry, and artillery into 1 transport each, full of each (4 of each unit) and use man-of-wars to cripple La Caruna’s (in northwest Spain) defenses, thus providing an empty city you can transport those units to.  Once taken, fortify one infantry, and take the rest of Spain, discluding Gibraltar.  Doffenses are great against Spain, but sometimes just plain cavalry will do, at a non-fraction strength, of course.  You should take Palma with a transport, I recommend one from Italy, and some man-of-wars from north Africa.

          Gibraltar is always frustrating to the scenario player.  They always try to use massive naval numbers on the city.  BIG MISTAKE even if you have 10 ironclads.  Order Cadiz, Grenada, and Cartagena (all in south – southeastern Spain) to build 1 artillery each.  Then use the artillery, plus any remaining cavalry, to take Gibraltar.  It is actually a very simple task.  

          Now for Turkey.  Extremely easy!  You should have at least up to Antioch on Ottoman cities.  From there, take Mosul and Baghdad using doffensives.  Mosul won’t need it much, but Baghdad will.  From there, flank the rest of Turkey from Antioch and from south – southeastern Europe.  A huge doffensive will be necessary on Constantinople.  Smyrna and Ankara will require doffensives, Smyrna a relatively small one and Ankara a mediocre one.

          Now that all nations are gone except for one city of the Neutral Alliance, it is time to take that city.  It is the city of Stockholm.  Order Riga and St. Petersburg to build transports.  Load each with 4 (the maximum amount) cavalry units, nothing else.  You should have left over cavalry units that you have been pushing space bar on since the invasion of Russia.  Unload the cavalry group from Riga two land spaces away from Stockholm to the south (this part has some roads and irrigation).  Watch out for any naval offensive from the last Neutral Alliance city.  Unload the cavalry group from St. Petersburg two land spaces away from Stockholm to the north.  Send the cavalry in NEXT TURN so they will have two spaces to move, instead of one.  You didn’t want it right next to the city, for then your units would be target practice for Neutral Alliance artillery or naval vessels.  Well, Stockholm is captured.

Congratulations, you have conquered Europe.

The Ending Screenshots:

You will want to choose Explosives first for a tactic you will execute later.


"Doffensive" on Kiev during the Russian occupation stage.

This is how many units you might have after the capture of Russia & the Neutral Alliance.

    
A comparison of how the date, population, and gold will change.